How Porsche hacked the financial system and made a killing
Making your own short squeeze.
I don’t think this would work in the US, because I think any ownership above 10% requires public disclosure. I wouldn’t be surprised if the EU were contemplating a similar law.
Playmobil Security Check Point
As with the BIC ballpoint pen, the true gold is in the reviews.
I will never need to buy toothpaste again thanks to Playmobil. Not realizing this was a toy I purchased it to prepare for my interview as a TSA agent. Needless to say I aced it and have been happily viewing xrays of carry-on luggage and shoes ever since. As noted above, the free toothpaste is just icing on the cake – never expected a free lifetime supply, but who’s complaining. This is a “must-have” for any aspiring TSA agent out there.
See also Safe Crackers (Thieves). Unfortunately Playmobil Police Station with Jail Cell has no customer reviews … yet.
Natures Spectacular Geometry of Snowflakes Frost and Ice
‘Tis the season (where I am, anyway)
9 Life-Changing Inventions the Experts Said Would Never Work
I still believe the part about not being able to fax a cat.
Movie Trivia: The Princess Bride
Billy Crystal specified that his character’s makeup should look like a cross between Casey Stengel and his grandmother. Rob Reiner had to leave the room every time Billy had a scene, because he would laugh so hard he would ruin the take otherwise. Mandy Patinkin says, “God’s honest truth,” that despite all of his risky fencing scenes, the only injury he sustained during the whole movie was bruising a rib from holding in his laughter during Billy Crystal’s scenes.
… or I’ll exhibit quantum behavior.
Objects exhibit quantum behavior when squeezed into a tight space. A new experiment has clearly demonstrated the wave-like properties of a hydrogen molecule inside a tiny carbon cage. Using neutrons to probe the state of the molecular prisoner, the researchers showed quantized states in both rotation and linear motion of the molecule, much like the “ladder” of excited electron states in an atom.
Weightless Workouts on the ISS
Tilt-Shift photos are the ones that look like they are of a miniature scene, but are really a trick of the focus and depth-of-field. You can do it with a special lens, or with software. Which is now available online: Tilt Shift Maker
Here’s a picture of rock-stacking from my trip to Monterey, tilt-shifted:
If confirmed as expected, Chu may well set sparks flying at the staid agency. Over the past four years, Chu has realigned the DoE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) in California into a pioneer for alternative-energy research.
Using an ice-hockey analogy, Eddy Rubin, director both of the Joint Genome Institute in Walnut Creek, California, and of the genomics division at the LBNL, says: “You can’t stay where the puck is — you have to skate where the puck is going to be. [Chu] had a compelling vision to put the lab where it needs to be.”
And I wonder who the Goons are going to be, to do the necessary forechecking?
According to the division directors, Chu said he would take the job if he could select the approximately 15 political appointees who would direct key DoE components. In the early days of the Bush administration, vice-president Dick Cheney was behind most of those appointments. Instead, “Chu will get to select the smartest people he knows”, says Rubin.
I was recently learning and reading about Haidinger’s Brush
Unlike some other types of animals, humans generally don’t perceive polarization of light, or rather we do so very weakly so it’s not something we normally notice. The link explains how to check for it and what to look for.
The eyes of men (AND women) are not designed to distinguish between different types of polarization, contrary to insects, cephalopods, many amphibians, fish, and other animals, for which nature possesses a different class of “colors” (but even common colors do not mean the same to everyone). However, a small quirk in the structure of the human eye gives us (by accident) the ability to tell apart different states of polarization. Thanks to this small aberration or “defect” of the eye we are not completely polarization-blind.
Yes !!! With some effort you can learn to see what remains invisible to most people! Without the help of any instrument you will be able to tell not only if the light you look at is strongly polarized or not, but also if it is linearly polarized or circularly polarized and, moreover, in which direction it vibrates or rotates. Any time that you raise your eyes to the blue sky you will be rewarded by the same clues that guide bees in their flight. Acquire P-Ray Vision !
I tried it with my LCD monitor (which, as we know, is polarized) with both a white and blue background, the latter for contrast to show the yellow. I think I see the yellow brush, but it’s not very distinct. I’ll keep trying, but I don’t think this is like those 3-D drawings that jump out at you all of the sudden.
Here’s another link explaining the phenomenon.